I know a few of you already aware that ESRI is launching Mapping Center (http://mappingcenter.esri.com), so I want to make an official announcement and to invite you to have a look. Below is our official text, though I want to especially address all the NACIS members I’ve known for many years and everyone else on CartoTalk, as Mapping Center is as much for you, the pros of cartography, as it is for anybody else using ESRI’s software to make a map. We want to publicize the software methods behind the cartographic techniques and make them available in the Mapping Center archive of resources.

Here’s our official word on what Mapping Center is:

ESRI’s Mapping Center is a new Web site that helps you make great looking maps with ArcGIS by using the same cartographic concepts that professional cartographers use. Visit Mapping Center to learn a variety of cartographic techniques and find information on best practices for mapping and cartography with GIS. Features include:

Blog: Read about and participate in the latest topics of conversation.

Maps: Learn how to achieve special cartographic effects with step-by-step instructions and illustrated examples.

ArcGIS Resources: Download resources to help you create cartographic effects.

Ask a Cartographer: Request solutions to mapping challenges.

Other Resources: Find links to additional resources and a special collection of Cartographer’s Favorites.

Here’s what we on the Mapping Center Team would add for the CartoTalk community:

Mapping Center represents, at least we hope it does, a additional form of software documentation. It’s directed toward anyone making maps with our software who may not know how to use the software well enough yet. Our software is complex and the best practices are not always obvious or consistent. We feel cartography is a sufficiently important to dedicate resources towards making its best practices in ArcGIS easier to find and learn about. To that ends we sincerely hope you’ll find Mapping Center useful and will tell us when it’s not so we can make it better.